North Carolina: Part 1

For the past 4 years The Merc has sent me to Medicines from the Earth in North Carolina. It's 3 days of awesome lectures on plant medicine from the "who's who" in the Alternative Medicine world. I'm so lucky! I always come back feeling rejuvenated and inspired. Chris got to tag along last year and this year, which is really fun for us. We get to turn it into a little vacation and Chris goes off and does nerdy historical things while I take classes on Natural Medicine. This year we had the opportunity to take a little side trip to Mountain Gardens. Joe Hollis took us on a plant walk of his garden paradise tucked away deep in the woods. He grows and harvests over 1,000 medicinal plants, has built a number of little cottages and has 3 or 4 apprentices come live on the land every year to learn about the plants. It is quite the magical place. We felt really lucky to catch a glimpse of the special life that this man leads.

Outhouse with outdoor shower.

Tons of tinctures that are there for people to come and use.

Same with the dried herbs. Anyone can stop by and learn and formulate their own medicines.

Belladonna.

Blueberries.

Vegetable garden.

Poppies.

That's Joe's 3 story house that he built himself!

To prevent erosion, he put retaining walls up, filled in with soil and planted vegetables.

That yurt is the first structure he built some 30 or so years ago.